ShareThis
Social sharing and audience engagement tools used by publishers to add share buttons and content discovery features. The ShareThis script injects social sharing widgets and tracks which content gets shared and to which networks. Also collects behavioral data for audience segmentation.
Overview
ShareThis provides social sharing buttons and audience engagement tools for publishers. The script injects share widgets and tracks content sharing activity across social networks while also collecting behavioral data for audience segmentation.
What This Script Does
The ShareThis script renders social sharing buttons on content pages and tracks which articles are shared, to which networks, and how often. It sets persistent cookies to identify visitors across sessions and across sites in the ShareThis publisher network. Behavioral data including page URLs, content categories, and sharing activity is collected to build audience segments. This data is made available to advertising partners for targeted ad delivery. The script fires pixel requests to sync visitor identifiers with third-party data partners.
Consent & Compliance
Consent category: Functional / Marketing (depends on configuration)
The sharing button functionality serves visitors directly, but ShareThis also operates a data business that profiles users and sells audience segments to advertisers. Under GDPR, the cross-site tracking and data sharing with advertising partners requires explicit opt-in consent. Under CCPA, the audience data sharing qualifies as selling personal information. The ePrivacy Directive requires consent for persistent cookies used for profiling. ShareThis participates in IAB TCF.
Should You Block This Without Consent?
Conditional. If ShareThis is configured with data collection disabled (sharing-only mode), it may operate as functional. In its default configuration with behavioral tracking and data sharing enabled, it should be blocked until marketing consent is granted.
Consent Categories
Also Known As
Industries
Tracked Domains (1)
sharethis.comMarketingFrequently Asked Questions
Does ShareThis require consent?
In its default configuration, yes. ShareThis collects behavioral data, builds audience segments, and shares visitor profiles with advertising partners — practices that require marketing consent under GDPR and CCPA. In sharing-only mode with data collection disabled, it may operate as functional.
What does ShareThis do beyond sharing buttons?
Beyond rendering social share buttons, ShareThis sets persistent cross-site cookies to identify visitors, tracks which content is shared and to which networks, builds audience segments from browsing behavior, and syncs visitor identifiers with third-party data and advertising partners.
How does ConsentStack handle ShareThis?
ConsentStack classifies ShareThis as a marketing vendor in its default configuration and blocks it until the visitor consents. If you have disabled ShareThis's data collection features, ConsentStack allows you to reclassify it as functional so the sharing buttons load without requiring marketing consent.
Related Vendors
Manage consent for ShareThis
ConsentStack automatically detects and manages ShareThis trackers so your site stays compliant with global privacy regulations.